The Marketing Manager’s

Survival Kit Remedies for Marketing Management Disasters

Demand Droughts

Marketing Blackouts

A Deluge of Work

Executive Explosions

Marketing Anarchy

Toxic Waste

Stakeholder Riots

Zombie Apocalypse

Be Prepared for Anything

Demand Drought

Rain Revenue with

Continuous Innovation

Maintain a Backlog of Ideas Create a running backlog of all

marketing ideas that you can draw on at any time. Set a standard for

prioritizing ideas based on relative value and level of effort required to

implement them. Groom the backlog on a regular basis to refine good

ideas, remove outdated ideas and reprioritize those that remain. By

keeping a running idea backlog, you simplify marketing planning and make

sure you never lose a good revenue generating idea.

Marketing Management Survival Tactic

Creating demand and driving sustainable revenue growth is the primary charter of every marketing

organization. However, they are much easier said than done. There are times when increasing

demand is as simple as ramping advertising spend. Sooner or later though, every ad campaign and

media channel runs dry. Ending a demand drought requires marketing innovation, and marketing

innovation requires the ingenuity of skilled marketing managers.

The problem is ingenuity doesn’t scale. Sustainable

revenue growth cannot rest entirely on the shoulders

of a few creative marketing managers. To prevent

recurring demand droughts, you must systematize

marketing innovation. New marketing ideas,

both big and small, must be sourced, brainstormed,

prioritized, tested, measured and assessed on a

regular basis. Successful new ideas then become

ongoing marketing programs, and innovation shifts

to marketing program optimization. If you want to

be a revenue rainmaker, you must build a marketing

innovation machine.

Source Ideas Broadly Source new marketing ideas

broadly and routinely by conducting regular surveys of

customers and sales, publishing request and feedback forms, and

soliciting suggestions from throughout the entire company

Marketing Management Survival Tactic

If no one knows what marketing is doing, then the natural conclusion is that marketing isn’t doing

anything terribly important. Moreover, when different groups within the marketing organization

don’t know what other groups are doing, it is impossible to provide a unified experience for your

customers. Unfortunately, most marketing plans, projects and performance reports are hidden

away in spreadsheets, documents, email inboxes and other poorly lit locations.

Publish a Marketing Calendar

An easy way to keep everyone informed about upcoming

marketing promotions, projects, and events is to

publish a monthly marketing calendar and update it weekly. Share the marketing calendar with marketing, sales, other

departments and the executive team to keep

everyone informed.

Marketing Blackouts

Light the Way

with Complete

Visibility

Marketing Project Management Real-time visibility across the entire marketing department requires detailed project tracking.

Consider implementing a marketing project management system. A rigorous and automated

approach to marketing project management increases the probability that reality mirrors

your marketing plan, and eliminates busy work. If you systematically collect information at the project level, then higher-level views, such as marketing roadmaps, calendars and progress

reports can be completely automated. Marketing Management Survival Tactic

Ending a marketing blackout requires

systematic collection, integration

and publication of marketing plans,

projects and performance. Current marketing

plans, status of work-in-process and marketing

performance reports for each marketing area should

be available to everyone in the marketing department.

High level roadmaps, a monthly marketing calendar,

and regular updates should be published to all marketing stakeholders.

Without an integrated marketing management system, consolidating and

communicating marketing activities is pure overhead and can be quite

labor intensive. However, the alternative marketing blackout is far worse.

A Deluge of Work

Open the Flood Gates

To capture the attention of busy buyers, marketing managers plan global campaigns, product

launches, seasonal promotions, and spectacular events that routinely fill marketing departments up

with a deluge of work. If you don’t brace yourself for these foreseeable floods, quality will suffer

and marketing teams will drown in a sea of work. Marketing management at scale is a process, not

a project, and marketing managers must master important process management principles to open

the floodgates when the tide runs high.

Handling a deluge of work with limited marketing resources

requires scalable, efficient marketing production processes

based on increased standardization, automation and quality. The

more your marketing production processes resemble a factory,

the more marketing output you can generate per marketing

team member. Most marketing projects from websites to trade

shows require the coordination of cross-functional marketing

teams. While these people-centric processes cannot be fully

automated in the same sense as sending an email, their

production capacity can be dramatically increased by

standardized workflows, formalized hand-offs, deliverable

templates, reusable assets and proactive management of

resource bottlenecks. Once standardized, routine tasks can be

automated and end-to-end processes can be optimized through

continuous improvement.

Define Marketing Workflows and Handoffs Increase the efficiency of people-centric marketing processes by focusing on the handoffs. Define specific process stages, such as draft, copy, design, proof, etc. and create outlines

and templates for deliverables that get handed-off at each stage. Track marketing projects by stage to ensure a smooth work flow. Just like you do with the purchase funnel!

Marketing Management Survival Tactic

Manage Bottlenecks If you monitor marketing

projects by workflow stage, then you can identify bottlenecks in your

marketing management process when a particular

stage backs up. Bottlenecks in any stage reduce the

output of the entire process. Remove

bottlenecks to keep your marketing projects flowing

and increase efficiency. Marketing Management

Survival Tactic

Executive Explosions

Defuse Volatile Situations

Sometimes big problems come in small, well-intentioned packages. For example, when the VP of

Sales makes a simple and reasonable request that threatens to blow up all your well-thought-out

marketing plans and committed marketing goals. Can we upgrade the website next month? Let’s

start doing webinars once a week. And, so forth. Then there are the super urgent, yet conflicting

requests. The VP of sales wants a website upgrade, but the VP of customer success wants a

community portal, and, you only have one web team.

The ability to defuse potentially volatile situations

involving hard-charging, single-minded executives is

an essential marketing manager skill. Life is easier,

however, if skill is also supported by process and a

few facts. Executives ask marketing for things they

think they need to be successful. However, exactly

what they need and when they need it allows room

for negotiation. What is the priority of the request

relative to projects on the current marketing

roadmap? Does it all need to be done yesterday, or

can it be broken up into smaller projects and rolled

out over time? Or frankly, is it sufficient to just

capture the idea for future consideration.

Manage Scope, Not Just Resources The secret deactivation code to defuse every explosive executive

situation is the word “YES”. Manage project scope, not just resources. By breaking big project requests up into smaller

increments, you can provide immediate satisfaction without derailing current marketing plans. Say “YES” to something small

today, and deliver the bigger vision incrementally over time. Marketing Management Survival Tactic

Public Marketing Backlog An executive request that looks important and easy in isolation, might be foolish and

difficult when weighed against current marketing plans. Everyone wants

marketing to work on the most valuable ideas, so keep a prioritized backlog of all potential marketing projects and publish

it for stakeholders to see. Build consensus around your marketing plan and backlog priorities. Now handling a

new request is just an exercise in reordering the backlog.

Marketing Management Survival Tactic

Toxic Waste

Clean Up Rework

and Useless

Meetings

Most marketing departments are under resourced and over committed. There is no time for do-

overs. Fuzzy objectives, fuzzy assignments, fuzzy agendas, fuzzy hand-offs and fuzzy

communications lead to endless marketing rework and countless hours spent in useless staff

meetings. Busy work that eats up precious marketing cycles without moving things forward is a

toxic waste of time that can seriously undermine marketing performance.

Cleaning up waste from rework requires clearing up

day-to-day marketing management activities. Luckily,

it doesn’t require a lot of overhead. Rigorous work

habits and simple process rules will often do the

trick. Make sure strategic marketing goals are clear,

so you don’t waste time on unimportant projects.

Don’t start a new marketing project without clear

objectives and requirements. Create modest project

plans with a special focus on deliverable hand-offs to

coordinate cross-functional teams. Make sure every

project and deliverable has a single, clear owner.

Bring an agenda to every meeting and record issues,

decisions, and action items.

Management by Exception Streamline team meetings by

eliminating updates on work that is going according to plan—just make sure

the plan is up-to-date before the meeting. Focus instead on coordinating

hand-offs, resolving issues, helping stuck team members, and removing

obstacles from blocked projects. Marketing Management Survival Tactic

Marketing Collaboration Email, chat, and social tools are great

for one-off conversations, but they lack the context, depth and continuity

required for purposeful collaboration. Consider a marketing collaboration platform that links conversations,

documents, and decisions directly to projects for greater efficiency.

Marketing Management Survival Tactic

Lightning Strikes

Ground Yourself

against

Unexpected Shocks

Budget cuts, competitor moves, PR crises: sometimes unexpected bolts from the blue shock a well-

organized marketing plan into complete disarray. When things change rapidly, does your marketing

organization absorb the shock and rebound nimbly? Or, does it end up in a panic that puts

everything else on hold until the crisis passes? Insulating your marketing organization against

sudden shocks requires a flexible marketing management process that expects change and adapts

quickly.

If you find it difficult to plan because you are

constantly dealing with unforeseen changes, then

you should consider adopting agile marketing best

practices, such as working incrementally. When you

know your marketing plan will change each month,

then you should not commit to projects that will take

longer than a month to implement. Break big

projects up into smaller ones that fit into your known

time horizon. Don’t make rigid plans that extend out

several quarters. Set long term goals and prioritize

your backlog of projects accordingly. Focus on

producing a steady stream of work based on your

backlog. When lightning strikes, you just have to

adjust your priorities, not your plans.

Agile Sprints Once you start working

incrementally, you can fit projects neatly into weekly, bi-weekly or

monthly work ‘sprints’. Each sprint cycle, you strive to complete

projects assigned to the current sprint, then realign priorities for any changes as you plan the next

sprint. Sprints increase your flexibility, strengthen your focus on

tangible results, and establish a regular heartbeat within your

marketing organization. Marketing Management

Survival Tactic

Work Incrementally Big projects reduce flexibility, while

small projects increase it. Implement big projects incrementally by breaking

them up into smaller ones. When lightning strikes, you can easily shift to

something else without lowering productivity.

Marketing Anarchy

Bring Order to

Random Acts

of Marketing

Marketing managers have many choices. In particular, marketing managers must decide what they

are going to do before they can plan how to do it. Should you improve your message or drive more

traffic? Does your product need more capability or higher quality? Once decided, the real work

begins. Without a clear strategy, each marketing manager chooses differently and you end up with

marketing anarchy characterized by conflicting priorities, confusion, frustration and inconsistent,

sub-optimal marketing results.

Your marketing strategy must be more than a plan. It should include clear cross-functional goals and

priorities that facilitate everyday decisions by constraining marketing choices and clarifying marketing

tradeoffs. You can’t just do a presentation or send out a memo. Marketing strategy must be baked

into your marketing management process to link everyday work to strategic initiatives, keeping work in

step with strategy even when priorities change. It should enable every marketing manager to make

coherent choices and avoid wasting time on random acts of marketing.

Marketing-centric Views of Plans and Performance Task lists are great for getting things done, but they don’t help you decide if you are doing

the right things in the first place. Don’t just make a list of marketing projects. Create roadmaps, calendars, campaign plans and charts by market segment, channel, product,

buyer personae, strategic initiative, customer value, and other critical marketing dimensions to see if your marketing work and results are properly balanced, prioritized and integrated.

Marketing Management Survival Tactic

Real-time Marketing Roadmap Improve alignment and integration by linking campaigns and projects to strategy. Publish a real-time marketing roadmap that presents your marketing plan by strategic initiatives, such as “increase awareness”, “drive new

business” and “build loyalty”.

Angry Mobs

Quell Stakeholder Riots

Everybody wants something from marketing.

Sales wants leads. Support wants a

community website. The CFO wants more

revenue with less budget. And, every CEO

has a pet marketing project. Keeping

stakeholders happy, particularly when they

have conflicting priorities, is a never ending

challenge of every marketing department. If

you consistently miss stakeholder

expectations, you’ll find yourself facing a

frustrated and angry mob.

You can’t please all of the people all of the time, but you can build buy-in and

co-opt your critics. The best approach to quashing marketing stakeholder

problems is to involve stakeholders in the solution. First and foremost, keep

stakeholders apprised of marketing plans and performance. Marketing

blackouts encourage stakeholder riots. Proactively solicit feedback on

marketing plans and source suggestions for future marketing programs.

Collaborate directly on important marketing projects, so your stakeholders are

as committed to success and own the results as much as you.

Co-opt Your Critics People tend to take care of their own. If you want real stakeholder buy-in to your marketing

plans, then you should include them in your planning process. In fact, you should collaborate with stakeholders on the actual work to tap into their ideas and perspectives. When you co-opt your critics, they don’t just buy into your plans, they co-own the results.

Marketing Management Survival Tactic

Market Marketing The best way to avoid angry mobs is to set the right expectations in the

first place. Communicate key marketing strategies, priorities, plans and decisions broadly to all interested

stakeholders on a regular basis. Marketing Management

Survival Tactic

Zombie Apocalypse

Reanimate

Unproductive

Team Members

Rapid organizational changes can wreak havoc on marketing productivity. High growth, corporate

reorganizations, acquisitions and sudden turnover can create scenarios where the marketing

department is full of new, inexperienced and potentially unmotivated marketing managers. Even

the most senior marketing managers can freeze up while coming up to speed on entirely new

surroundings. Welcome to the marketing zombie apocalypse, where the blind lead the blind and

nothing gets done except trying to keep yourself from being eaten alive.

When ramping new or inexperienced marketing

team members, it’s best to be more explicit

about what, when and where things need to get

done. While experienced, senior marketing

managers are proficient team leaders, more

junior team members need to be led. They are

also less likely to raise the alarm when they are

stuck or overloaded, and have no internal

benchmark for good performance. Priorities and

tasks should not only be explicit, they should be

visible to the entire team, so marketing

managers can detect and resolve individual

problems before they impact other team

members and marketing deliverables.

Set Benchmarks and Examples of Superior Performance

It’s hard to tell if you are doing good if you don’t know what good looks like. When everyone has a clear picture of superior marketing performance, then it easy to tell when marketing managers are

living up to their true marketing potential. Marketing Management Survival Tactic

Define Task Plans and Monitor Progress

When tackling an entirely unfamiliar project, even the most experienced

marketing managers appreciate a little detailed instruction. Also, unmotivated

and underperforming staff need to realize that they are bringing down the entire team. The best way to handle

both of these difficult marketing management situations is to define

specific task plans and monitor progress until the suffering individuals are back

up to top performance. Marketing Management Survival Tactic

About Markodojo Markodojo marketing management software helps marketing managers lever up by

empowering marketing teams to be more strategic, more creative, more focused, more productive and more agile. Markodojo scales where spreadsheets and project

management tools fail, providing an integrated platform for marketing planning, marketing project management, marketing team collaboration, marketing relationship management and online feedback tools that bring marketing closer to customers and

sales. To learn more, visit www.markodojo.com and sign up for a free trial.

About the Author Joel York is the CEO and founder of Markodojo and a respected thought leader in the software community. He shares his knowledge on the popular blogs Chaotic Flow and Cloud Ave. Prior to founding Markodojo, Joel was a career CMO and built multiple marketing departments from startups to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Joel got his first exposure to agile at Deloitte Consulting. A lifelong student of

agile principles, Joel has applied agile methods in marketing, engineering and manufacturing. Joel holds a BS in Physics from Caltech, an MS in Engineering

Physics from Cornell and an MBA from the University of Chicago.

© Copyright 2016 by Markodojo Inc. All Rights Reserved. www.markodojo.com